DARLING Review— Prabhas Darling…When Will You Score A Hit?

When you see heros like Rana, Naga Chaitanya, Allu Arjun, Manoj and other kids from star-houses, you suddenly feel that Prabhas [even without a resounding hit in the near past] is a Super star. No wonder then that a Prabhas starer is something that I look forward to. Not only the male leads, even the female lead and leading jodi are below normal acceptable standards these days [compared to Tamil cinema]. In such a situation, the jodi of Prabhas and Kajol seemed fresh and hot. The only place to see such film would have to Sandhya 35mm, AC, dts.In addition, whenever Mr. Karunakaran is the director you almost always hope that perhaps…maybe he is making another Toliprema. Although the HOUSEFULL board was prominently displayed, the parking guy told me that it is nice “family” film and no wonder there not much crowd buzzing around the theater. Not that there is any problem with a family film starring Prabhas, but the issue is how novel or special is the story. As expected, being a Prabhas film all else being fine, there is always something missing and you end feeling sorry for Prabhas darling as his filmDarling, although fine, just does not aim to hit the bulls-eye.

Prabhas [Prabhas] is the happy go lucky dude who is weak in studies, but strong in everything else. Sure, he has a gang of friends. When one of his lady friends, also the daughter of a goon [Mukesh Rishi], proposes Prabhas declines and the lady commits suicide. Her doting and rowdy father puts a gun to Prabhas’s head and urges him to marry his daughter. Prabhas then melts the rowdy’s hearty by telling his love story with his childhood friend Nandini [Kajol] who is currently in Switzerland. Just before you the interval, it is revealed the entire love story narrated by Prabhas is one big fake story just to escape from the gun! while the characters are all real, including his love for Nandini, the plot narrated which finally resulted in a car accident for Nandini is all made up. You do laugh initially at the trick, but soon begin to wonder why so much of reel was wasted on a fake story. The second half is family-types. There is re-union of all college friends from the previous generation and during this time Prabhas is hoping that he can propose his love for Nandini. The second half is quite fun with a couple of emotion-packed twists, good songs, and excellent comedy by Prabhas. A bad guy is introduced to provide the necessary competition for Prabhas and some fights. Mukesh Rishi finds out that the first half story is all fake and comes to take his revenge, but this time Nandini saves the day by expressing her love for Prabhas.

First things first, although I said the film doesn’t hit the bulls-eye, it is a decent film to watch once for the Prabhas-Kajol jodi, a couple of nice songs, Prabhas’s animated comedy act, and for the plenty of sit-com style sequences all through out the film. In fact, the film beings in black and white with all talented actors in the typcial 70’s get-up, but soon you realize the film’s goal is to revolve around Prabhas’s heroism that is where the novelty is lost. There is nothing special about the story. The fights too macho and unrealistic. I wonder why our Telugu films show the hero to be made of super-natural fighting powers. Prabhas as usual puts in a sincere effort and is good looking to the core. However, his dressing at times is quite derailed–too much of the loose t-shirt, and why is he wearing bangles? Kajol is fine. Sure, Prabhas is titled as the Young Rebel Star, but the truth is he is the most unlucky star in Tollywood. Given his physic, looks, and sincerity to work I so much wish he had a good director and story writers to work with…he would have gone place. Hopefully, there will be a film where Prabhas will get everything right.

Mr. Inkenti’s Movienomics Verdict: Thumbs Down. However, among the current lot in Telugu films, Darling is probably the only film you can watch as a family [Simha is for those who which to pursue a career in butchering]. Nothing great going on here, but the comedy is fine and the jodi is good and Prabhas compels you to sit through the film [clearly, a characteristic of a Star]. Watch it for time pass, but I am still going to give it a thumbs down for not being special.

Mr.Inkenti Intro

Mr.Inkenti is an academician, social researcher, observer, blogger, and a fan, who studies entertainment media and related affects off/on human behavior and society. The views expressed on this blog are entirely Mr.Inkenti's and do not in any way possible represent anybody or anything. Mr.Inkenti blogs about the public affairs from RTC X Roads, Hyderabad to Oslo, Norway. Welcome, aboard.